By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: October 12, 2004

Senator John Kerry accused President Bush on Monday of failing to do anything about record oil and gasoline prices that he said were hitting industries and middle-class consumers alike with the equivalent of ''a tax increase that they can't afford.''

In a break from preparing here for the third and final presidential debate, Mr. Kerry seized on a pocketbook issue and sounded a theme aides say he will pound away at when the two candidates meet on Wednesday. On a day when oil prices reached a new high, Mr. Kerry said Mr. Bush had sided with his ''friends in the oil industry'' over ordinary people.

Mr. Kerry said gasoline prices had risen 30 percent under Mr. Bush, the cost of heating the average home had climbed 91 percent, ''and high energy costs have pushed up prices across the board from the food that you have on your table to the clothes that you and your children wear.''

Mr. Kerry also alluded to the so-called risk premium on oil caused by the war in Iraq, recalling that administration officials once predicted that oil prices would fall to $28 a barrel as a result. ''Last week, gas prices hit a record $53 a barrel, and people are talking about $60 a barrel,'' he said, ''and one big reason is because of President Bush's gross mismanagement and miscalculation regarding the war in Iraq.''

In a speech to a few hundred supporters here, Mr. Kerry rattled off several sharp retorts to Mr. Bush, as if he were testing lines to use on Wednesday in Tempe, Ariz.

''To borrow a saying, when it comes to George Bush's record on gas prices, he can run but he can't hide,'' Mr. Kerry said, turning around the taunt Mr. Bush uses to accuse Mr. Kerry of hiding from his own Senate record. ''Facts, as President Ronald Reagan reminded us, are stubborn things, Mr. President.''

He added, ''When it comes to developing a real energy policy, George Bush has run out of gas.''

Mr. Kerry accused Mr. Bush of failing to push a ''good energy bill'' through Congress. An administration-backed energy bill that includes tax incentives for energy companies to encourage more domestic production has stalled in the face of opposition from Democrats and some Republicans who argue that some provisions are too favorable to polluters. A Bush campaign spokesman, Steve Schmidt, noted that Mr. Kerry and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, missed a vote on the energy bill last year when it fell two votes short of passage in the Senate.

''John Kerry's obstruction of a national energy policy makes his current political opportunism completely hypocritical,'' Mr. Schmidt said.

Promoting his own energy plans, Mr. Kerry again said that he could ''make this nation independent of Middle East oil in 10 years.''

His ideas include a $20 billion trust fund to develop clean fuels and energy-efficient cars and buildings, upgrading the nation's electrical grids, finding new sources of natural gas and ''clean coal,'' and importing more oil from countries that do not belong to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. He said his initiatives would create half a million new jobs.

Energy industry experts say Mr. Kerry's promise of ''independence'' from Middle East oil is hollow unless the United States stops importing oil from anywhere or even using it altogether. Oil prices are global, so disruptions of oil shipments from the Middle East to other countries would still cause price shocks in the United States, experts say.

''It's not very relevant,'' said Roger Diwan, a managing director at PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm, who said he nonetheless favored Mr. Kerry in the race. ''The question is, can you make demand in this country grow less fast, or shrink, so you make the country less dependent on oil, period.''

With Gov. Bill Richardson, a former energy secretary, beside him, Mr. Kerry invoked New Mexico's role in the Manhattan Project in calling for a similarly ambitious scientific race to solve what he called a looming energy crisis.

''We have to invent our way out of this crisis,'' Mr. Kerry said, ''and we need to do it now.''

Photo: Senator John Kerry asked supporters to take their seats yesterday before outlining his energy plan in a speech in Santa Fe, N.M. (Photo by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)